Sixty years ago I was a 19-year-old merchant ­seaman on board the Mediterranean White Star cruise liner MV Britannic, entering the port of Haifa in Israel.

We had to sail from Cairo to Haifa – the ship would not have been allowed to dock if we’d gone the other way because Egypt refused to recognise the State of Israel.

But I was excited to be entering Israel, where its young population shared my values of social justice, human rights and solidarity.

In my discussions with the young kibbutz people, workers and trade unionists at the motor plant and ordinary Israeli citizens, I was met with great warmth and enthusiasm and the excitement of shared international comradeship.

It remained a very deep part of my early political development.

But nations have changed dramatically in my time.

America under Trump is no longer open and tolerant.

The Britain of my time, with Attlee’s Labour Government introducing a National Health Service and a welfare state, is entirely different to the austerity-driven country under May.

And the optimistic Israel I visited then is completely different to the one now governed by right-wing Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

It is worlds apart from the priorities and values of social justice, human rights and solidarity which I saw in Israel.

A common factor is that these leaders appear to emphasise ­division instead of unity.

Trump wants to build a wall to stop Mexicans, May wants to reconstruct a Cold War, and Netanyahu is building illegal settlements in Palestine.

But criticism of Israel’s policies should never be turned into the ideology of hate that is antisemitism.

It saddens me that in my party “pockets of antisemitism” ­exist and that British Jews feel threatened.

But does that make Labour an antisemitic party? Of course not – and I and many members resent the accusation.

Two years ago, Shami Chakrabarti brought out a report into antisemitism in the Labour Party, with a list of recommendations.

Many have been implemented, including zero tolerance of racist language and minimising or questioning the Holocaust.

John Prescott has experience of working with Israelis (Image: Getty Images Europe)